HIV/AIDS team brings together disparate grantees to share learning, insights

Members of JHF’s statewide Minority AIDS Initiative and Southwest PA Ryan White grantees gathered for a combined learning collaborative in Pittsburgh.

Members of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation's HIV/AIDS team brought together grantees from two initiatives for a joint learning collaborative on September 18.

Twenty-one staffers from grantees of JHF's statewide Minority AIDS Initiative (MAI) and 28 from Southwest PA Ryan White grantees shared insights and strategies for engaging — and re-engaging — clients in care during a half-day gathering in Pittsburgh.

The learning collaborative teaches participants about quality improvement, strategies for harm reduction, and opportunities for staff and leaders from our partner agencies to interact, network and learn from each other.

The meeting piggy-backed on the former group's twice-annual learning collaborative a day earlier. Ryan White grantees, hailing from 11 Pittsburgh-area counties, meet six times a year for learning sessions specific to their clients.

Feedback was enthusiastic. Said one Ryan White participant: "Honestly, this one of the best [Learning] Collaborative meetings I've been to. It was great to have many moving pieces and conversations happening in one space."

Founded in 2012, MAI brings together 11 AIDS service organizations from across Pennsylvania to improve patient services and strengthen programs to re-engage HIV-positive individuals who are not receiving treatment.

Ryan White grants represent federal funding to states to support health care, supportive and housing services to eligible individuals living with HIV/AIDS, and for prevention/education services to at-risk populations. JHF is the fiscal agent for that funding.